By IANS
Mumbai : The Indian equities market Monday opened in red in line with its global peers. Banking and consumer durables counter registered heavy buying in the initial trade.
The 30-share benchmark sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened with a loss of 351.16 points at 17,227.56. Twenty minutes into the trade, the Sensex had falled further and was trading at 17,067.03, shedding 511.69 points from its close Friday.
At the same time the S&P Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was down up by 147 points to 5,075.70.
The market breadth was extremely weak with low volumes. In the initial trade 252 scrips advanced, 1,131 declined and 17 remained unchanged.
Other Asian markets were also trading in the red. Japan’s Nikkei was down 3.98 percent at 13,062.15, Hang Seng slid by 2.77 percent to 23,656.36, Taiwan Weighted went down 2.07 percent to 8,238.45, South Korea’s Seoul Composite went down by 2.72 percent to 1,665.01.
The US market had slumped Friday after a series of economic reports reinforced recession fears. The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 315.79 points, or 2.51 percent to 12,266.39.
Spice Telecom, Essar Oil ltd, BPCL and Bajaj Auto were among the gainers at initial trade on the Indian bourses Monday. ITC Ltd, State Bank of India, Reliance Capital and ICICI Bank Ltd were among the top laggards.